


Under the Threshold

by fabflyingfox



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Fear of Thunderstorms, M/M, more tags as chapters progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-04
Updated: 2015-03-04
Packaged: 2018-03-16 08:30:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3481334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fabflyingfox/pseuds/fabflyingfox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Azumane is but a simple man wanting to live a simple life. His friends Daichi and Suga help him realize his dream of living alone in the countryside, bringing Asahi solitude.</p>
<p>That is, until on New Year's he gets a knock on his door.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Under the Threshold

Asahi breathed out a sigh of relief.

The last several months had been a true challenge. Sure, it would have been easier to have chosen to rent out a room in the city or to occupy a home that was already built in a town or village or even one in a part of a countryside not unlike the one he stood within. But with every piece of wood chopped, every stone set in concrete, every nail hammered into place (with a few slips and curse words from Daichi followed by chuckles escaping Suga’s lips), every wall painted, every slab of rooftop aligned.

It had all been worth it, for Asahi to now have a cottage all his own. He was truly grateful to Daichi and Suga coming out to the countryside with him; it made the experience of building his future all the more enriching, his two best childhood friends being able to give him a fresh outlook when plumbing layout gave him a headache, or when the blueprints of the cottage had issues that could potentially get the entire thing burned down (Whose bright idea was it to make the fireplace out of wood on the blueprints?), or when the roof fell through the first time and the three of them had to start over on setting it from scratch. Asahi was certain that without Suga smoothing out the layout and schematics and Daichi acting as a dependable second set of hands on the heavy lifting and riskier task, he surely would not have been able to finish this cottage the way it stood before him now.

From the outside, Asahi’s cottage was a modest establishment. Washed stones protected the lower half of the home in case a sudden storm blew in and brought flooding into the valley in which the cottage was built along with it, and sturdy oak wood was furnished into a set steps up to the doorframe of the home. A one-story home with a small main living quarter, furnished with hand-carved tables and chairs with a rug woven as a gift from Asahi’s grandparents under a plush couch across from the stone fireplace. Asahi had set up a kettle in the fireplace for cooking food, although he did have a countertop with a sink with cabinets for dinnerware and a small refrigerator. In the adjacent hall, there were two doors: one that led to the bathroom with a bathtub and toilet, and the other that led to a bed, a dresser, and a full-length mirror. The walls of both the bathroom and the bedroom were bare; Asahi did not have much that he brought with him when he left home that wouldn’t be considered necessary aside from the rug his grandparents wove for him.

His cottage was small but sturdy, and most importantly, his.

Asahi felt the start of tears well in the corner of his eyes. In a moment, he could feel himself turning to Suga and Daichi and thanking them for all their hard work to help him realize this dream. He could see them smiling warmly at him, clapping him on the back, and parting ways as the sun set behind the mountains in the distance just part the forest’s end. It would be a beautiful moment.

Asahi turned to Daichi and Suga…

…the two of which were piling up camping gear into Daichi’s beat-up carriage.

“You guys…”

Daichi slammed shut the back door to the vehicle and turned to face Asahi, “What’d you expect, Ace, some sentimental moment? I’ve got to get Suga home, you know, we’ve both been taking a lot of time off work to be out here.”

Asahi’s gaze fell to the soft grass under his sandaled toes, “I wanted to thank you guys for helping me out and take in the moment since we won’t be seeing each other every day now…”

 “That kind of talk is simply prohibited, you know,” Suga sang out as he dropped a sack of tent supplies into the trunk and, “Besides, it’s not like we won’t be by often to check on how you’re doing, Asahi.”

Daichi nodded, having walked back over to Asahi to punch him playfully in the arm, “There’s no way you’d be able to survive out here with that glass heart of yours without at least a little company from time to time.”

Asahi smiled hesitantly at his two best friends, knowing deep down in his heart that they were right, but still a bit wounded emotionally. Would he really be okay living out in the wilderness, depending on the land in his small cottage, on his own?

“By the way, Asahi,” Suga called Asahi over to the carriage in order to place a package in the taller one’s hands, “This is for you. It should help you keep this place clean.”

Asahi unwrapped the package to find a box, a dustpan, and a hand broom. _Seriously_ Suga.

Asahi’s eyebrows furrowed in bewilderment as Suga grinned up at him, “Make sure you keep this place tidy; you never know when to expect a visitor.”

Asahi gazed into Suga’s amber eyes, glistening with the light of the setting sun as he slowly nodded, “All right, then. It’s a promise.”

“Suga, we’ve got to get home,” Daichi groaned from the driver’s seat of the carriage. Suga winked at Asahi and climbed into the seat next to Daichi as he nodded at Asahi, “Take care, Ace. Not sure if we’ll be able to get off work for a bit, but we’ll be by again soon.”

As the carriage drove off toward the village, Suga waved back at Asahi until the car winded around a hill, Asahi tentatively waving his hand with a weary smile before turning and walking up the steps of his cottage, crossing the threshold for the first time and locking the oak door behind him.

-*-*-

A self-sustaining life in the countryside proved to be a rather refreshing change of pace for Asahi. Growing up in bustling towns and villages wasn’t necessarily disagreeable, however the hustle and bustle of merchants up and down the streets and children playing loudly did cause for some distraction. Asahi wouldn’t consider himself claustrophobic by any extent of the word, but there was something about living in proximity with so many people all going in different directions and taking up different causes and professions that made Asahi uneasy. He longed for time away from the expectations villagers had of him – a strong, statuesque man with the look of a wild man thanks to his facial hair – so that Asahi could find just what kind of man he actually was.

Waking early, Asahi carried a couple buckets down to the lake behind his cottage to gather water to heat over the fireplace. He would later use some of this water as bath water, which would drain under his home and into the garden he dug into the soil the day after Suga and Daichi returned to the village 25 kilometers east of the forest. In the meantime, Asahi would fish for the protein of his meals that day, and once satisfied with his haul prepare the fish to be stored in his refrigerator until he needed it to cook. Asahi then cleaned his house religiously; he had truly taken to heart the vow he had made to Suga in case any unexpected visitors did arrive, partially in loyalty to his childhood friend and partially out of fear of what Suga meant by “visitors.”

Occasionally Asahi would go out into the forest to cut down firewood and explore, however, he made sure to stay close enough to the first steady line of trees so that he could see his cottage in the distance. The prospect of getting lost in the forest was something that stirred a slight amount of anxiety deep in the pit of Asahi’s stomach, and he was not going to be caught within the forest once sun was down, as he was not entirely sure what would be awake there once the sun set.

After collecting what he needed from the forest, he would return home, do some wood carving to ease his mind, and prepare his cottage for spending a quiet evening in, keeping a low fire in the living room and curling up with his blanket after completing a new wood work and contemplating the tranquility that came with living alone.

No, not lonely, just alone.

Alone in solitude.

Asahi would let his eyelids drop as he dozed on the couch, and only move to his bed after stirring long enough to put out the last of a low, simmering flame in the fireplace.

-*-*-

Asahi hated thunderstorms.

No, not hated, was scared shitless by them. On the days when the ominous gray storm clouds would roll over the forest, Asahi would not hesitate to lock all the shutters on the three windows of his cottage, lock the door, and spend the entirety of the storm under his bedframe.

When he was younger, he would stay under the bedframe until Suga or one of Asahi’s grandparents found him, face stained by tears, body shaking and blanket held so tightly that Asahi’s knuckles rivaled pearls in how pale they became. Asahi never told Daichi of his fear of thunderstorms after Suga introduced the two of them in their mid-teens out of a small ember of pride in his gut. Knowing Daichi, he would never let Asahi live down his sheer terror at claps of lightning, which could break him.

Asahi hated thunderstorms, but now that there was no one to let him know when the skies were clear, he had to grow to brave the storms himself. At first, he would be under his bed until he could hear the faint squawking of crows around his garden, but over time gained the courage to roll out from under his bedframe when he no longer heard the pitter-patter of rain sprinkling on his rooftop.

_“Please, just let this one pass, just let this one pass_ ,” he would mumble to himself under his blanket, _“just let this one pass…”_

-*-*-

“Hmmmmmm~,” Suga hummed to himself in approval as his eyes danced around the warm living room in late November, carrying a pan of homemade dinner rolls and followed by Daichi with a basket of washed vegetables for the meal the three young men would partake together in Asahi’s cabin. Daichi let out a low whistle.

“You’ve taken quite a liking to wood carving, huh, Ace?” Daichi wondered aloud in awe. His gaze scanned over the various pieces, trailing the intricacies of a large wooden map perched above the fireplace, “You’ve really got a lot of time on your hands, I’m jealous.”

Suga punches his shoulder playfully as Asahi sets out the fish had grilled over his fireplace throughout the day. The tallest of the three let out a contented sigh as his eyebrows curved toward each other.

In the couple months Asahi had spent there, he had furnished a few wood carving that now hung on his wall. He was most proud, though, of the wood sculpture of an owl he had seen staring back at him on a branch high above him a few weeks before. He felt intimidated by the owl’s presence, but at the same time, a respect for the life of the bird as it shut its eyes to slumber as the sun met the bird’s gaze that particular day.  

“Say, Asahi,” Suga grinned conspiratorially at the larger man as he bent over the table to set down the dinner rolls, “That owl carving, did you find yourself a familiar in the woods?”

 “What do you mean…?” Asahi asked, puzzled.

“A kindred spirit in the heart of an animal,” Suga put a finger to the corner of his lip and his eyes looked upward in thought, “Though you don’t strike me as the owl type.”

Asahi blinked as Daichi chuckled lightly, “Seriously, Suga, this again?”

Suga glances over his shoulder and sticks a tongue out at Daichi before whispering into Asahi’s ear, “He’s just jealous because he can’t feel the spiritual energy here. You’ve picked a great place to live, Asahi.”

Asahi’s face paled as he glanced from Suga’s blinding grin to Daichi still analyzing the wooden map over the fireplace and back to his cherished childhood friend, “I… we didn’t build my cottage over a gravesite did we?”

It was Suga’s turn to chuckle, “No, of course not! I wouldn’t let Daichi lay a single floorboard if that were the case. If anything, you’re more a cohabitee than anything.”

“If you’re done talking your nonsense,” Daichi smiled as he joined the two at the table, “Maybe we should go ahead and eat while the food’s still relatively warm....”

Suga seats himself and leans backwards, stretching his arms over his head with a contented sigh, “Feels like we haven’t eaten together in a long time.”

Asahi’s face softened into a contented smile, “Yeah.”

The three held a moment of silence in respect to their food, and dug in. They exchanged stories as they ate of work in the city, of a series of unusual events that led to Suga taking several animals in with him and Daichi over the course of the past four months, and of the peacefulness living in the countryside has brought to Asahi.  Daichi pointed out that Asahi should consider hunting some of the deer in the area – “If you only get your protein from fish you might wither away” – and offered to give Asahi pointers on how to hunt them. Suga chided that Asahi was doing just fine – “He might disturb the good fortune of the forest gods if he goes killing the souls protected by the forest” – and insisted that if his childhood friend needed to kill anything to make sure to pray over its soul passing. Asahi nodded as he watched the two bicker like the married couple he always secretly saw them as, and really, _why haven’t they realized their commitment to each other yet?_

When they finally left, Asahi now equipped with a bow and arrow and a basic knowledge of archery as Daichi instructed him from the edge of Asahi’s garden until he had found his perfect aim, the gentle giant of a man shuffled his feet to curl up in bed.

Somewhere in his heart, Asahi felt a small twinge in his heart he couldn’t place his finger on.

-*-*-

The days leading up to New Year were busier for Asahi than any day he had spent at his cottage before. If he hadn’t been cleaning his home extensively before, he certainly was making sure to clean every nook and cranny now, watching the sky with an ominous dread. In the back of his mind, he dreaded the chance that the weather could change over the New Year and bring with it a year of misfortune.

_Suga has been rubbing off on me_ , Asahi sighs to himself as he turns the soil in his garden before taking a bath.

New Year’s Eve, Asahi hunted and brought home a deer for prepare for dinner, which proved to be a refreshing change of pace for Asahi’s fish-based diet. He said a silent prayer for the passing of the deer’s life after slaying it, and prepared the meat into cutlets, of which he would consume after turning on a post over his fireplace to cook.

As the day turned into night, Asahi finished cleaning the interior of his home, more and more nervous as he heard the wind pick up outside he shutters of his windows. He confided in Suga before the start of building his home that he did not want Daichi to see Asahi during a thunderstorm and, now that the weather was looming and threatening to bring Asahi’s worst nightmares back to the forefront of his mind, he prayed that Suga’s charisma would dissuade Daichi from coming out to his cottage for New Year’s celebration.

_Please Suga give him a good birthday for me, I’m sorry, so sorry…_

In the final hours of the year, Asahi curled himself up into his blanket on his couch. “No rain has started,” Asahi consoled himself watching the flame dwindle in his fireplace, “There’s no reason to be afraid yet. Just stay calm.”

Then, at midnight, Asahi is startled by the thunder crack of a knock at the door and the sound of a slump on the door.

**Author's Note:**

> OKAY SO I know the first pairing here is AsaNoya and Noya hasn't shown up yet. 
> 
> Don't worry chapter 2 is going to make things get a LOT more interesting I just I'm a little too excited about writing my first chaptered fic. And I wasn't sure, if I added the next scene now, if I'd find a good stopping point for chapter 2. 
> 
> Sorry to keep you all in the dark. I'm open to critique and hopefully - HOPEFULLY - I'm able to keep this consistent from start to finish. Thank you for your patience.
> 
> Chapter 1 title inspiration - "New Seeds" by Boards of Canada.


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